The Chargers’ Pro Bowl cornerback remained in the starting lineup on Saturday, playing through a calf injury that has bothered him for the last month. It was good news for the team, given that the alternative option was undrafted rookie Michael Davis, who entered the weekend with just 36 career snaps on defense.

But less than nine minutes into the second quarter, Kansas City receiver Tyreek Hill burned Hayward for a 64-yard touchdown catch, peeling away from the cornerback more than 30 yards from the end zone. Seven steps after hauling in Alex Smith’s pass, Hill flashed his index and middle fingers back at his defender — his signature celebration.

He wasn’t hoping to see it in person. Hayward had entered Week 15 as the NFL’s top-rated cornerback, according to analytics website Pro Football Focus. He was part of a secondary that had yet to allow a 100-yard receiver, something no other team in the league could claim.

By halftime, however, Hill had four catches for 82 yards. He didn’t add any receptions in the second half, but Kansas City didn’t need him to en route to a 30-13 win.

It’s worth noting that Hill may very well be the fastest player in the NFL. On a pair of kick returns last year, he hit 23.24 and 22.77 miles per hour — the two fastest speeds registered by a ballcarrier in 2016. He hasn’t quite matched that this season, topping out at 21.64 miles per hour on a Week 7 touchdown catch.

But Hayward also didn’t look like his usual self on Hill’s scoring catch, slowing to a jog near the 10-yard line.

Held out of Thursday’s practice, Hayward’s game status had been thrown into doubt roughly four hours before kickoff — when the Chargers announced cornerback Craig Mager’s promotion from the practice squad to the active roster.

But Hayward jogged into Arrowhead Stadium for his regular pre-game routine, inspiring enough confidence for the Chargers to leave Mager inactive.

SACK PARTY

Chargers defensive end Melvin Ingram sacked Smith with less than five minutes left in the first quarter, dropping the Kansas City quarterback for an eight-yard loss.

In doing so, the former first-round pick got his 10th sack of the season, moving within a half-sack of the career best he set in 2015.

Ingram and second-year pass rusher Joey Bosa — who entered the game with 11.5 sacks — are the first Chargers duo to have double-digit sacks since 2006, when Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips had 17 and 11.5, respectively.

This is also the first time that two players have had double-digit sacks under Gus Bradley in his nine seasons as either a head coach or defensive coordinator.

WARM ENOUGH

Philip Rivers tried throwing with a glove on his during practice this week, but decided to leave his right hand bare at Arrowhead Stadium. The temperature was 53 degrees at kickoff, roughly 20 above what the Chargers quarterback had set as his cutoff for whether or not to wear one.

“There’s a little better grip with the glove,” Rivers said earlier this week. “I don’t know if there’s a difference, but I certainly didn’t want to go out there on Saturday and think ‘Oh, I’ll try it out.’”

Rivers finished the first half completing just nine of his 18 passes for 109 yards. He entered the locker room with just a 69.0 passer rating after four straight games over 103.0 — his longest such streak since 2014.

Jack Wang covers the Chargers, the latest NFL team to relocate to Los Angeles. He previously covered the Rams, and also spent four years on the UCLA beat, a strange period in which the Bruins' football program often outpaced their basketball team. He is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley, where he spent most of his time in The Daily Californian offices in Eshleman Hall — a building that did not become earthquake-safe until after his time on campus.